I was only a teenager when Nicolas Cage started making movies. I remember that he quickly became popular for his “method” ways. He had a few teeth pulled to play one character, and ate a live cockroach when he played a vampire in Vampire’s Kiss in the late ‘80s. So, I figured he’d do a good job playing Dracula and vamping it up (see what I did there?).
I had a blast with this movie, which was like John Wick meets What We Do In The Shadows, with a dash of American Werewolf in London [side note: Nic Cage has said in interviews he’d like to play the Wolfman]. And just like the fun I had with Cocaine Bear, you have to just go with the craziness and not take it too seriously, and you’ll enjoy the ride.
Nicholas Hoult (the “About a Boy” has grown up), the nice Nicholas in this film, plays Robert Montague Renfield. We learn that he was a real estate agent who unfortunately got involved with Dracula, becoming his “familiar” (basically, his slave). In addition to the usual personal assistant tasks you might expect, he also has to bring Dracula bodies to feast on. He finds plenty of them through a support group for people in toxic relationships. He learns enough about the abusers to capture them for Dracula. Talk about a win-win situation. Renfield soon realizes that his relationship with Dracula is the same. Yet when he frees himself – by purchasing a Bill Cosby sweater at Macy’s and getting his own apartment (with cheesy self-help posters on the wall), you get the feeling he won’t be livin’ the good life for very long. Yep. When Dracula shows up to get answers, it’s hysterical. The way Cage pulls off those facial expressions, listening to the various excuses coming from Renfield, is one of many scenes that had me laughing out loud.
Awkwafina is always great on screen (so good in Shang-Chi). If you’re bored and want a good laugh, go find her response to the Mickey Avalon song online. Anyway, her police officer character Rebecca Quincy, didn’t quite work for me. I blame the writers for that (my wife was delighted that one of the writers was Robert Kirkman, wrote/created The Walking Dead, which she loves). Just having her curse out her fellow officers, who are on the take with the mob, got old quick. And she didn’t have the best chemistry with Hoult.
The side story with the mob plays nicely into this tale. Ben Schwartz plays Teddy Lobo, and reminds me of an actor that always played a slimeball in ‘80s movies – David Patrick Kelly (Dreamscape, The Warriors, Commando). Teddy is the son who’s a bigger screw-up to his folks than Hunter Biden (oh snap! I just got political in a review). His mom is the mob boss, played by an Iranian actress I’ve been in love with since I saw her play Ben Kingsley’s wife in The House of Sand and Fog. That would be Shohreh Aghdashloo, who has that voice that sounds like she swallowed a bullfrog (and makes her all that much sexier, even at 70-years-old). And while those mob characters are the usual tropes, who cares? They bring a fun energy to the picture. Speaking of the energy, this is paced nicely, with only an hour and a half run time. Director Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War) does a great job not staying on any one scene too long, and combining horror elements with gore, humor, and romance.
I’ve complained about needle-drops in movies lately. I much preferred the way a popular song was done in this. There’s a segment where some characters make fun of ska music. Later, at a crime scene where the ska lover plies his trade, we see graffiti on a wall. One officer is trying to figure out what it means. Quincy says, “They’re song lyrics.” (they’re the opening lines to “A Message to You Rudy”).
There were some scenes where Nic Cage sounded like Ozzy Osbourne (who also dealt with bats, and biting heads off things). It’s funny that certain “actors” like Steven Segal or Van Damme, go from big blockbusters to a career of movies that went straight to video. Cage had a career where he’d earn Oscar nominations (Moonstruck, and an Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas), and stupid movies where he became the butt of jokes for how many bad movies he’d do each year. Yet, he still is respected enough to get offers for all varieties of film. I’m still surprised The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent didn’t get more love during this year’s awards season (I thought it was a better film than Everything Everywhere All At Once). And this is a movie with almost as many laughs.
4 stars out of 5.